How do you like to go up in a swing, Up in the air so blue? Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing Ever a child can do! Up in the air and over the wall, Till I can see so wide, Rivers and trees and cattle and all Over the countryside - Till I look down on the garden green, Down on the roof so brown - Up in the air I go flying again, Up in the air and down!
Flights of Fancy
Song Cycle by Burton E. Hardin
1. The swing  [sung text not yet checked]
Authorship:
- by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894), "The swing", appears in A Child's Garden of Verses, first published 1885
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Sylvain Labartette) , "La balançoire", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
2. Silver ships  [sung text not yet checked]
There are trails that a lad may follow when the years of his boyhood slip, but I shall soar like a swallow on the wings of a Sliver ship, Guiding my bird of metal One with her throbbing frame Floating down like a pedal, roaring up like a flame Winding the wind that scatters Smoke from the chimney's lip, tearing the clouds to tatters with the wings of my Silver Ship Grazing the broad blue-sky light up where the falcon's fare, riding the realms of twilight brushed by a comet's hair. Snug in my coat of leather, watching the skyline swing, shedding the world like a feather from the tip of a tilted wing. There are trails that a lad may travel when the years of his boyhood wane, but I'll let a rainbow ravel through the wings of my sliver plane.
Authorship:
- by Mildred Plew Meigs (1892 - 1944), "Silver ships"
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]3. Prayer for the Pilot  [sung text not yet checked]
Lord of Sea and Earth and Air [ ... ]
Authorship:
- by Cecil Edric Mornington Roberts (1892 - 1976), "Prayer for the Pilot", copyright ©
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This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.4. An Irish airman foresees his death  [sung text not yet checked]
I know that I shall meet my fate Somewhere among the clouds above; Those that I fight I do not hate, Those that I guard I do not love; My country is Kiltartan Cross, My countrymen Kiltartan's poor, No likely end could bring them loss Or leave them happier than before. Nor law, nor duty bade me fight, Nor public men, nor cheering crowds, A lonely impulse of delight Drove to this tumult in the clouds; I balanced all, brought all to mind, The years to come seemed waste of breath, A waste of breath the years behind In balance with this life, this death.
Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "An Irish airman foresees his death", appears in The Wild Swans at Coole, first published 1919
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Un aviateur irlandais prévoit sa mort", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Confirmed with W. B. Yeats, Later Poems, Macmillan and Co., London, 1926, page 245.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
5. High flight  [sung text not yet checked]
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds...and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of...wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there, I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air. Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace Where never lark, or even eagle flew. And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
Authorship:
- by John Gillespie McGee, Jr. (1922 - 1941), "High flight", written 1941
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]